Put
yourself in the homeowner’s shoes. You buy a home for your family.
Perhaps it’s even handed down from your father or grandfather. It’s
a place you can afford in a neighborhood you like. The children have
made friends. You intend to stay for the rest of your life.

As
you plant your garden, landscape the yard, put up a swing set for
the kids, and mold your land into a home, unknown to you, certain
city officials are meeting around a table with developers. In front
of them are maps, plats and photographs – of your home. They talk
of dollars – big dollars. Tax revenues for the city, huge profits
for the developer. A shopping center with all the trimmings begins
to take shape. You’re not asked for input or permission. You’re not
even notified until the whole project is finalized and the only minor
detail is to get rid of you.

Then
the pressure begins. A notice comes in the mail telling you that the
city intends to take your land. An offer of compensation is made,
usually below the market price you could get if you sold it yourself.
The explanation given is that, since the government is going to take
the land, it’s not worth the old market price. Some neighbors begin
to sell and move away. With the loss of each one, the pressure mounts
on you to sell. Visits from government agents become routine. Newspaper
articles depict you as unreasonably holding up community progress.
They call you greedy. Finally, the bulldozers move in on the properties
already sold. The neighborhood becomes unlivable. It looks like a
war zone.

Like
being attacked by a conquering army, you are finally surrounded, with
no place to run, but the courts. However, you’re certain of victory.
The United States was built on the very premise of the protection
of private property rights. How can a government possibly be allowed
to take anyone’s home for private gain?

Under
any circumstances this should be considered criminal behavior. It
used to be. If city officials were caught padding their own pockets
or those of their friends it was considered graft. That’s why RICO
laws were created.

Finally,
five black robes named Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Kennedy, and Breyer
shock the nation by ruling that officials who have behaved like Tony
Soprano are in the right and you have to vacate your property.

These
four men and one woman have ruled that the United States Constitution
is truly meaningless. Their ruling in the Kelo case declared that
Americans own nothing. After declaring that all property is subject
to the whim of a government official, it’s just a short trip to declaring
that government can now confiscate anything we own; anything we create;
anything we believe.

Astonishing.
The members of the Supreme Court have nothing to do but defend the
Constitution and keep it the pure document the Founding Fathers created
to recognize and protect the rights with which we were born. They
sit in their lofty ivory tower, never worrying about job security
with their life-time appointments. And yet, they have obviously missed
finding a copy of the Federalist Papers, which were written by many
of the Founders to explain to the American people how they envisioned
the new government would work. They have missed the collected writings
of James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and George Washington,
just to mention a very few. It’s obvious because otherwise, there
is simply no way they could have reached this decision – unless implementing
another agenda was their purpose.

I
don’t have the benefit of the Justices’ grand staffs or unending salaries.
But just a little research has turned up pretty much everything Stevens,
Souter, Ginsburg, Kennedy, and Breyer would have needed to reach a
logical conclusion that protection of private property rights are
the most important rights, vital to the very foundation of a free
society.

Our
Founding Fathers left no doubt in their writings, their deeds, or
their governing documents as to where they stood on the vital importance
of private property. John Locke, the man whom the Founders followed
as they created this nation said, “Government has no other end than
the preservation of property.” John Adams said, “The moment the idea
is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws
of God; and there is not a force of law and public justice to protect
it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”

One
would be hard pressed to find a single word in the writings of the
Founding Fathers to support the premise that it’s okay to take private
property for economic development. To the contrary, they believed
that the root of economic prosperity is the protection of private
property.

So
how did Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Kennedy, and Breyer miss such a
rock solid foundation of American law? Perhaps they didn’t. Perhaps
they chose to ignore it in favor of another agenda. Specifically,
Agenda 21.

For
several years, certain members of the Supreme Court have been discussing
the need to review international law and foreign court decisions to
determine U.S. Supreme Court rulings. Justice Breyer has been the
most outspoken for this policy, saying, “We face an increasing number
of domestic legal questions that directly implicate foreign or international
law.”

What
international laws are these? In general, the most pervasive are a
series of UN international treaties, including several that address
issues of climate, resource use, biological diversity, and community
development. Specifically, Agenda 21, signed by the United States
at the UN’s Earth Summit in 1992, calls for implementing what former
Vice President Al Gore called a “wrenching transformation” of our
nation, through a policy called Sustainable Development. Sustainable
Development is the official policy of the United States and almost
every single city and small burg in the nation.

Sustainable
Development is top-down control, a ruling principle that affects nearly
every aspect of our lives, including; the kind of homes we may live
in; water policy that dictates the amount each American may use in
a day; drastic reductions of energy use; the imposition of public
transportation; even the number of inhabitants that may be allowed
inside city borders. Most Americans have heard of a small part of
this policy operating under the name Smart Growth. Agenda 21 outlines
specific goals and a tight timetable for implementation. In June,
2005, the UN held a major gathering in San Francisco where the mayors
of cities from across the nation and around the world gathered to
pledge to impose Sustainable polices.

In
order to meet such goals, federal, state and local governments are
scrambling to impose strict policies on development and land use.
The use of Eminent Domain has become a favorite tool. Sustainable
Development calls for partnerships between the public sector (your
local government) and private businesses.

Now,
as the public/private partnerships move to enforce Sustainable Development
in local communities, an unholy alliance is also forming, allowing
corrupt politicians to line their pockets and gain power as they partner
with select businesses and developers to build personal wealth and
power. They plot to take land that isn’t theirs for personal gain,
while claiming it’s for the “public good.” That’s all the excuse they’ve
needed to hide their true intent.

However,
things have been changing as such brutal, organized theft has spread
across the nation in the name of community development and environmental
protections. American have started to fight back to protect their
property. In Oregon, people went to the ballot box and shocked lawmakers
by passing Measure 37, which says the government must either pay full
price for any land taken, or waive the regulation and leave the property
owner alone. In Wisconsin, the state legislature passed a bill to
stop Smart Growth policies that are destroying property owners. In
Michigan, the state Supreme Court overturned the precedent-setting
ruling it made more than 20 years ago that allowed the use of Eminent
Domain in taking property for private use. In fact, it was that original
ruling that had been used by communities across the nation to justify
their own Eminent Domain takings.

Clearly,
the nation has started to rise up to stop this assault on private
property. Without the power to grab property at will, the ability
for communities to implement Sustainable Development has come into
question.

Those
who support Sustainable Development and Agenda 21 needed something
big to put things back on track. The Supreme Court, which has already
stated that it must look to international laws and treaties to decide
American law, provided the answer. Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Kennedy,
and Breyer chose Sustainable Development and Agenda 21 over the Constitution
of the United States.

However,
the effort may well be backfiring on the Sustainablists as the nation
is reacted in force to protect property rights. Now, state legislatures
and the U.S. Congress are rushing to produce legislation to restore
property rights protections. Even Americans who have rarely uttered
a political thought are suddenly becoming feverish with zeal for the
Fifth Amendment. Americans may be learning all over again what the
Founding Fathers knew – that the right to own and control private
property is the most important right.

Subscribe to the NewsWithViews Daily News Alerts!

Enter Your E-Mail Address:

That
is all well and good, of course, but Americans must do much more than
just get upset. They need to get behind those legislative efforts
at every level of government to assure passage. They must dig in at
the local level to foil efforts by their mayors and city councils
to impose Eminent Domain against their neighbors. We must run this
organized theft (now masquerading as the “common good”) out of town
on a rail. And don’t forget to leave room on that rail for Stevens,
Souter, Ginsburg, Kennedy, and Breyer.

NOTE!
Tom DeWeese is one of the featured speakers at the upcoming Freedom
21 conference in Reno, NV. held this July 14, 15, & 16, 2005
at the Nugget Casino Resort. DON'T MISS IT! BE THERE!

Tom DeWeese is the publisher/editor of The DeWeese
Report and president of the American Policy Center, an activist, grassroots
think tank headquartered in Warrenton, VA. The Center maintains an Internet
site at www.americanpolicy.org.

As
you plant your garden, landscape the yard, put up a swing set for the
kids, and mold your land into a home, unknown to you, certain city officials
are meeting around a table with developers. In front of them are maps,
plats and photographs – of your home.